HBOS/Lloyds Merger

Asked if the Government would give the go ahead to the HBOS/Lloyds merger, the PMS said that there would be an Office of Fair Trading report published today and that it was for BERR to respond to that report. As we had said at the time of the merger, the Secretary of State for Business would modify legislation affecting takeovers so that the stability of the UK financial system could be taken account of in consideration of the public interest. Section 42 of the Enterprise Act 2002 allowed the Secretary of State to extend the grounds for considering public interest and on 7 October BERR laid an Order in Parliament to enable Ministers to intervene and make decisions on mergers that may impact on the UK&#8217;s financial stability. The Order had been approved by Parliament and came into force on 24 October.